Highlights: Tizen Developer Summit Shanghai 2014

The story of Tizen has been filled with ups and downs. Just when you think that the OS ready for prime time, there is something or the other that prevents that. At first the Samsung and Google’s broad ranging patent agreement threatened to put a shadow over it, but at the last Tizen Developer Conference in June, Samsung took the wraps off the brand new Samsung Z. Since then it has also announced other Tizen products such as the Gear S smartwatch and NX 1 camera. It is another matter that Samsung decided not to release the smartphone, as the ecosystem to support it wasn’t ready yet. One advantage that Tizen does enjoy is that while Samsung’s smartphone efforts may be on the proverbial backfoot, it is also an OS for TV’s, cameras, smart homes and more.

With that backdrop, we step into the Tizen Developer Summit, Shanghai. The Tizen Association just announced that 16 new companies have signed up, taking the total number of members to over a hundred. More highlights below.

Click on each image for the full size version.

Tizen is build in layers. There is the common code base, and then modules are added on top of it according to the kind of device being made e.g. a smartwatch or a smartphone or a TV.

Tizen supports malware detection at the basic level, and also has support for plug-ins, so developers can customise easily.

This is the answer to why Tizen? Made for devices with frugal resource requirements. Best HTML5 performance, multitasking support, and so on.

If you already didn’t know that, the genesis of Tizen.

The answer to how can you get involved with Tizen.

Tizen 3.0 for IVI is expected by the end of this year, expect to see it in Mobiles, TVs and wearables next year.

A list of the existing, and upcoming products. Expect Tizen based TVs next year.

The Gear S, is Samsung’s top smart watch. They are clearly giving more attention to Tizen based watches, while Android Wear is on the back burner.

The Samsung NX 1 is a Tizen based camera, but unlike the NX 30, its aimed at the pro-users.